The present invention relates to a belt buckle for the releasable connection of a belt to another belt or to another object, wherein the belt buckle has at least one male buckle part with at least one plug-in extension and at least one female buckle part with at least one plug-in-extension receptacle, and at least one locking device, wherein, in order to lock the buckle parts, the plug-in extension of the male buckle part is insertable into the plug-in-extension receptacle of the female buckle part and the buckle parts are lockable to each other in a locking state by means of the locking device.
Belt buckles of the type in question serve to releasably connect belts to each other or to releasably fasten a belt to another object. These belt buckles are used, for example, both in the sphere of mountaineering and flying, but also for working safety and the like, and have in the meantime become widely used. Belt buckles of the type in question are found, for example, in International Registered Design DM/045484 and also in EP 2 165 619 A2.
Due to the areas of use thereof, the belt buckles have to be designed to be highly dependable, and, as far as possible, inadvertent operating errors must not be able to occur, since frequently the user's life, or at least the user's health, is dependent on the error-free functioning of the belt buckles.
One possible source of danger is that of, in the locking state, the locking device being inadvertently brought from the locking position thereof into the unlocking position and thus unintentional separating of the buckle parts being able to occur.
In order to prevent this, it is known, for example from AT 510 489 B1, to provide an additional counter-latch which secures the locking device in the locking position thereof against unintentional opening.
A disadvantage of said counter-latches is that the overall construction and possibly also the operation of the belt buckle become more complicated because of them.